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Upper Yellowstone Falls

Upper Yellowstone Falls in January

-- Jer

The Montana Artists Refuge -- final paintings 2

I promise I won't show all 70 paintings that I finished over the last two months.  But here are a couple more from the Basin (Montana) street scene.

This is one of the last paintings I did just before I set up the exhibit January 24.. It is of Teresa's house next door. Teresa is a waitress at the cafe that is three doors down on the other side of the studio, and so I saw her walk by to work three or four times a day, sometimes with Kelly, her kindergartner. I saw her other older kids, too, and the three or four vehicles that the family drove, all in various states of disrepair. Teresa is from Alabama and has a thick accent and a totally cheerful attitude. And her house is very very Basin-ish.

This was one of my favorite Basin paintings, admired by others, too. I could have sold it three times over. Down the street a ways is a wrecking yard which used to be a service station which was a livery stable before that. And this is one of the trucks in the wrecking yard. I was told by a lot of people that in spite of its location, it wasn't a junk truck -- it still ran, and ran good! It looks to be a US army truck, perhaps vintage 1950's.

Finally this is an oil painting done from my studio window (with the help of a photograph for the vehicles) of the Leaning Tower of Pizza restaurant down from Brad's place. The pizza there is terrific (only rivaled by Portland's Oasis Pizza), and the building was one of four or five (including the Refuge) that were constructed of brick and are long, skinny, and have the flat roofs concealed by brick bric-a-brac. The "wheeled" vehicles gave me fits to paint, as you might notice. This particular monster had three sets of wheels to deal with and in spite of pained struggles, the trailer doesn't look like it will hold up that truck much longer. --June

Goodbye Snow Coach

A snow coach hits the road in Yellowstone National Park

-- Jer

The Montana Artists Refuge -- final paintings 1

We have finished out our stay here in Basin, Montana. The final tally was 70 paintings between December 1 and January 22 (and one after that). This does not count the truly dreadful ones that I threw away.

So I thought over the next week or so, I'd post some of the paintings I haven't yet shown here, with an occasional comment. And on Friday February 1, I'll be doing an Art and Perception blog with some of the thoughts I had about the process.

But on to the art:

This first image (above) was one of the earliest paintings I did after setting up the studio. It's of a stuccoed trailer directly across from my studio window. It's overworked and was hard for me to paint -- when the books tell you to look very closely at whatever you are painting, they generally don't mean yard trash and derelict vehicles. Not to mention distant school house steeples that look like owls.

But when I looked closely I became enchanted with Brad's place (I never met Brad). He had a bird house, a doorhanging of Rudolph below his Christmas wreath, a big barbeque grill, and a large number of chairs that clearly get use when it isn't 10 degrees above zero. This is a man who loves his home, seems companionable and open to the main street, and I grew to love it too.

The painting above is of Mariah and Eli's Home, a rented trailer, with a half-finished, unheated addition, in which three kids and a Mom live. The swing set is Eli's pride and joy. These are the kids whose photo we blogged a few days ago; Mariah became the studio proprietor, bringing all her friends in to show them around. They sold me candles for the windows and told me about Basin. And asked me to paint their home. I felt that by the time I came to painting their house, I was better at composing and manipulating the paint. I liked the horizontals of the trailer and the swing set and the organic lines of snow in the mine tailings above the house. This has become one of my favorite oils from this Basin experience.

This last painting came from a photograph that Jer took that captured Basin-in-winter perfectly. The scene also appears in my last big Back Wall painting (more on that later); this is a watercolor I did as a study.  The other two paintings are oils. --June

Pavement Ends but Not Ice

Old Montana Highway 91 used to run through Basin, and remnants of it still exist. It seems better suited for walking than cars, however, as it meanders along the frozen Boulder River. -- Jer

Basin in Winter -- a visit from grade school #5

I began my final day in the studio at the Montana Artists Refuge by welcoming the entire Basin elementary school in for a visit to my exhibit, Basin In Winter, A Celebration of Place. 14 students, one teacher, one assistant, two volunteers --children ranging from kindergarten through 6th grade. The kids were full of questions and ideas and critiques and comments -- we filled an hour and a half before I had a chance to take a breath.

Here's what the studio looked like at 9: 55:

And here's what it  looked like at 10:05:

And so it went:

At the end of the visit, the children sat in a circle on the floor and told me which paintings they liked the most. It's the one behind me in the last photo of the Continuation --  I was describing the biggest painting I ever made. The paintings of the dogs also got a lot of favor. And oddly enough, the long map (middle, back wall, above) even came in for some accolades. The teacher and assistant came back after school to buy some paintings and two children dropped by later to buy some of Jer's photographs.

My last day of Celebrating Basin continued into the afternoon and evening, with the Open House, Exhibit and sale from 1--5 and then a bunch of refuge founders sat around the wood stove and traded war stories over wine. It was all quite wonderful. --June

For a few more photos of the kids (I can't resist them) see the Continuation.

Arches at the Archie Bray Foundation

-- Jer

Contra Dancing in Basin Montana

Jer and I have now been to our first contra dance. What a scene. What an activity. What a night.

About 100 people showed up at the Basin Community Center (previously a union hall) for a free dance with musicians from the Montana Artists Refuge. The group, the AM String Band, is composed of five country fiddling musicians, living and practicing upstairs above us at the Refuge.

The drummer isunknown, but the band members (left to right) are Michael Willing, Johanna Davis, Zach Davis, Nate Pope, and Adam Nordell. Michael and Adam are from Helena Montana, Zach and Johanna (brother and sister) are from Maine, and Nate is from Corvallis Oregon. And oh my, can they make music.

Capturing photos of the crowd was almost impossible -- who can stand still when the music is resounding.

The caller was mostly in control, which was good, since most of the dancers were novices at contra dancing. Jer and I had done some square dancing in our distant youths, and so understood "allemande left" and "do-si-do your partner," but little else. Luckily the dances repeat the moves with minor variations often enough that we stumbled through at least half of them.

The crowd was composed of kids (youngest about 4) through ancients (perhaps 80 years old or so). The little ones danced right along with the big ones, and had a great time when they made arches with their partner and the big ones had to sidle under them.

The snow began about nine and the crowd rapidly diminished -- to get anywhere from Basin, you have to go over at least one pass. But those of us who were local remained behind for a last waltz and a walk home through a beautiful winter evening. --June

Snowmobiles

Snowmobiles seem about as common as cars in West Yellowstone, Montana. -- Jer

Baby, It's Cold.......

Minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit at 8 AM Monday morning.

Before it got really cold, it really snowed. The previous snows we've had have been skiffs (like Portland's misty rains). Skiffy snow is the kind that doesn't stick, blows down your neck, bares patches of dirty winter ice -- that sort of snow. But over the weekend it snowed hard and dry, two days in a row. The drifts got lots bigger.

That's the old firehouse bell, the Stone House, and the famous High Note Cafe (now closed), on Basin (Main) Street, Basin, Montana.

This is a longer view of Basin Street. Note the speck in the distance. It's Jezebel, a  familiar dog about town, making use, as usual, of the middle of the road. If I were a dog in this snow, I'd go for the plowed road too.

And here's Boozer, the new mayor of the town (the old one died). This is also Not-Otis, Otis being Charlie's dog who, I'm told, is browner.

Boozer steadfastly ignored me for the last month and a half. But Sunday, when the temperature was below zero at midday, he decided to make his move. He came up to the Studio windows, peered in, and raised his paw and tapped. When I refused him admittance (the Refuge is only for people -- no other kinds of animals allowed) he moved away, staring at me reproachfully. This look is seared in my soul.

For a photo of the frozen studio lock (frozen on the inside I mean) and the sun at 12:15 on Sunday, check the continuation. --June